


Captive of Time

by iluvaqt



Series: DC & Marvel: Nightingale [13]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Jealous Loki, Obsession, Time Travel, UST one-sided
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-27
Updated: 2015-10-27
Packaged: 2018-04-28 11:22:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5088851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iluvaqt/pseuds/iluvaqt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Thanos tore the power of the Infinity Stone from her body, Chloe was thrown back in time.</p>
<p>For years she stayed with Bucky, unsure of how or why she even ended up in the right place or right time to look for him, until someone rescued her from the clutches of HYDRA.</p>
<p>Only it wasn't really a rescue. She had traded one prison for another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Taken

HYDRA compound, Northern Austria, 1948

She slumped forward. Zola put his fingers to her wrist. She had no pulse. Without care, he unstrapped the bonds securing her and she collapsed in a boneless heap at their feet.

"She may have exceeded her usefulness with the soldier," he said with a terse command, eying his prize subject closely. The man looked barely responsive. Whatever she'd done this time, she had pushed hard to ensure she blocked out any emotional response from them both. "Put her with the others."

"Sir," the technician asked doubtfully. "Do you not want me to dispose of the body?"

"You work with the exceptional as long as I have, studying their gifts and you will discover that not everything is revealed on the surface. She is strong and I have yet to determine the full extent of her talents. Leave her with the other test subjects. I will see to her after I have finished with our Soldier."

::: ::: :::

Loki looked at her, laying limp on the small dirty cot, thrown with no more care than one would give a bag of laundry. "This is what I defied my father for? To have you waste your potential, sacrifice your freedom for one frail mortal. You are a goddess amongst them."

He cloaked her from notice and lifted her with a display of care one would never expect to see from the silver-tongued enigmatic prince. After he opened a portal to the shadow realm, he took her from Midgard. And if he had his way, he would never allow her to return.

::: ::: :::

Chloe awoke feeling refreshed and swathed in fine silks and resting against the softest furs. A canopy of golden curtains hung around her, shielding her within a thin veil of privacy. The room was warm, lit and heated by a well stoked fire. 

She had no idea where she was or how she'd come to be in the room, but she was immediately wary of the fact that nothing this beautiful or decedent didn't come without strings attached.

The doors opened and the last person she ever would have thought to treat her kindly walked into the room. He was without that ghastly horned helmet that made him look like an evil smirking bull. And his gait was more sedate - humble - she must have a head injury since she would have never believed Loki capability of such an attribute. She watched him set the tray of steaming food on the table by the balcony doors, that revealed a stunning view of the night sky. There weren't any constellations that she recognized. Which was odd, she knew Earth's sky like the back of her hand. Spending many a night lounging in a barn loft with a best friend obsessed with astronomy, you learned by osmosis. At least she had.

With consideration for how at ease Loki appeared to be, she suspected she was on Asgard. And since he hadn't thrown her in the dungeon to rot or left her to Thanos again like cattle for the slaughter, she suspected that like Bucky, this was Loki from the past. 

And even though perhaps killing him now could save the lives of hundreds, possibly thousands in future and even prevent this series of events from ever happening, she knew enough from Clark's experience in time travel, that the smallest change could have catastrophic ripple effects.

She had only stayed with James, helped him, tried to protect him, because she believed it was something she'd already done. When she'd woken in that hospital in the South of France and discovered the date, she knew without a sliver of doubt that what Bucky had said about her was true. He had known her in the past. A past he had already lived and she had been about to experience. And for the two years she had stayed with him, protected him as best she could and soothed his battered emotional state when she couldn't, she wished that she had paid more attention to his memories and questioned him further instead of dismissing him so lightly. 

It would have helped her, or  
maybe not she thought sadly. What had happened was always going to happen and perhaps it had already played out exactly as it was supposed to. After all, he had mentioned he never discovered what had happened to her after he succumbed to HYDRA's control.

She shivered as she remembered the diabolical and inhuman methods of torture HYDRA's loyalists were capable of. She had read Steve's report on Arim Zola both during the War and his AI self after the collapse of Project Insight. She'd been disgusted by his 'science' and his actions before, having been subject to his methods first hand, she didn't think she could ever close her eyes again without praying for mercy and protection from a waking nightmare of memories. 

As it was, she had had to fight all her impulses, bury all normal emotional and physical responses behind that fortress in her mind where she pushed pain. She knew why they were torturing her. They wanted to see what she was capable of, she could beg, scream, it would make no difference to their treatment. All they cared about was the manifestation of some kind of ability, and furthermore, they were using her to condition James. They had found them together. They used her to get him to cooperate, to make him compliant. 

"You're awake." He watched her cautiously and did not approach. He seemed to sense that she was damaged and edgy. Yet his curiosity and desire to offer her comfort won out against his normally cautious instincts.

"What do you want?" It was on the tip of her tongue to sarcastically point out that he had a talent for stating the obvious, but she decided she really didn't want to have to tolerate him for any longer than she had to. She also didn't have the care to enter into a verbal jousting match with him. He might not be the slimy traitor of her future, but he was still an egocentric brat. 

"I would see you embrace your gifts. Of all the realms you desire the world least fit. They are nothing but lustful, weak, war mongers. They can not go one short mortal lifetime without waging war to decimate each other. Even the All Father has withdrawn from them."

"You've met every single person on Earth? Have you seen their struggles, understood their fear and oppression? Don't try to sell me on the worthiness of Asgard's rule if you can be so unmoved by the slaying of innocents by the thousands who did nothing more than exist."

He regarded her with thoughtfulness. "You remind me of another who is not defined by her sex. You fight against the constraints society would place on you."

"You're speaking of Lady Sif," Chloe said.

"You know of my brother and his cohorts?"

Chloe smiled thinly. It was hard not to think of Thor and his larger than life aura, his easy confidence, and not grin at the childish enthusiasm he displayed upon discovering appealing Earthly treasures, like coffee and Nutella donuts.

Chloe pulled the cloak around her more firmly over the thin nightgown she had been dressed in and got off the bed. Her limbs were stiff but she forced herself to move. The sooner she got herself moving around, the sooner her strength would return. "Am I free to leave?"

"And return to your mortal? You will only bring him more pain. I can not rescue him. Mortals are forbidden to enter Asgard."

Chloe gave him a mocking look. "Yet here I am."

Loki gave her the first look that reminded her of his future self, it was a look that was a sneer and an expression of exasperated fondness. Why he cared so much, she couldn't guess, yet it wasn't the first time she had seen him look at her that way. "You are not like them. Even the All Father could sense it in you. You once held the power of an Infinity Stone. It's essence still clings to you. It's power is one of six that is greater than any in the known universe. Never deny yourself, never lower yourself to less than what you are."

"I'm not a goddess or an angel or anything else to be adored or revered. All I want is to return to my family."

Loki bowed his head and folded his arms in front of himself. "Would you not at least consider visiting the other realms before you return to that forsaken planet?"

"What would you have me see?" she asked with desperation. She didn't belong here, yet she didn't really belong on Earth either. She buried her face in her hands. If she returned, could she really let everything unfold as history told it. Could she leave Bucky to HYDRA? Could she leave Steve in the ice when she knew exactly where to look for them both? The future would be undone. She could save them but then what? Perhaps they would live normal unremarkable lives. Steve would marry Peggy and continue serving with the SSR. Bucky would be free, Rebecca would have her brother. Chloe Sullivan might grow up never knowing either of them. Her heart threatened to explode in her chest and a headache of epic proportions drummed at her temples.

"Does he mean so little to you that you would subject yourself and him to such atrocities? They will break you and remake you until nothing but a shell of your soul remains. And what of him? Having to bear witness to it all. Is it not a mercy that he will no longer be subjected to your torture? Even while taking away his ability to have empathy and sorrow over your suffering, the second you release him, don't you see how the flood gate would open in the absence of your so called compassion?"

Chloe had never thought of it like that. She had thought that by blocking both her pain and his, dampening his emotional connection to what he was witnessing, that she was helping them both. She had not given any thought to what might have happened when she was unconscious. She had no control over her abilities while she was unconscious. A chill sucked what little warmth was left in her body and she crumpled to the floor. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she knew the fortress was cracked, the wall collapsing. Guilt consumed her and agony poured out of her. Through the blur and haze of tears she saw Loki on his knees, his hands closing around her shoulders.

"Please leave," she choked out.

Her heart spluttered in her chest at the naked empathy and sorrow on his face. She realized that her emotions were so strong that she was effecting him. Artfully deceptive, carefully schooled and controlled Loki Laufeyson, Dark Prince of Asgard was crying. She had literally brought him to his knees. Within a small corner of her mind where she not a shattered mess, she might have revelled in the picture he made. But all she could do was wrench herself away and press her face into the furs covering the mattress.

He left her alone and she didn't know how long she cried, but when gnawing hunger set in, she got up for the food tray he left behind.

The stew was cold but it was thick and tasty. He'd left cheeses, bread and fruit on the tray too but she was full after the stew. Having been on merger rations before and very little food while in captivity, her stomach had shrunk to the appetite of a small child.

Gathering a pile of blankets and furs, she made a bed for herself on the balcony and stared at the stars. 

"I just want to go home," she prayed. "Please send me home."


	2. Stockholm Syndrome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the only familiar face you see is your enemy, but he doesn't know it, you have no choice but to try to save him. At least that's the way she's always been. Trying to save people... Even the seemingly irredeemable ones.

Loki was her only visitor. She suspected that she was not as welcome in Asgard as he seemed to want her to believe. The one time they'd run into Thor, Loki had seemed embarrassed by her.

"That's not the bloodied slip of a pitiful creature you picked up on Cygnus? We thought for sure she was dead. It is good to see you hail and healthy, tiny one." Thor clapped her on the shoulder and Chloe had to set her face in a smile as not to wince and betray her frailty. To an Asgardian that might have been a love tap. If she didn't have the ability to regenerate, he might have fractured her collarbone spectacularly.

"Come along, Eir."

"Brother, you can not believe she is the goddess. She is far too small," he snorted in laughter. "If Volstagg were to sneeze, he would blow her over." He doubled over at his own joke and Loki hurried them along even faster.

With no way to return to her time, Chloe waited and indulged Loki's desire for her to visit and expand her knowledge of the Nine Realms. Growing stronger and learning to master her gifts, she became the renown healer he'd alway believed her to be. 

 

February 1990

Before she even understood what was happening, having moved from world to world, time had caught up and it took her by surprise when he brought a large birthday pyramid of honey cakes to her small tent on Vanaheim. 

"You shouldn't have. Although if we are celebrating, I only have one request. Return me to Earth."

There wasn't a time that she saw him that she didn't make the request. Loki wasn't one to bend to demands, neither did he succumb to nagging. So she simply made her request once each time and let him see her obstinance in her reluctance to converse with him beyond that.

"Are you not satisfied with your travels? Do you not see the insurmountable good your gifts bring to so many?"

Chloe tidied her shelves and checked over the many bottles of herbs and mosses. What she couldn't heal least she leave herself too weak or worse, in a death-like state, she treated in more conventional methods. She would never find her way back to Steve if someone mistakenly burned her body, as was the traditional last rites of a fallen Asgardian.

That's how everyone saw her, the goddess Eir reborn. Revered Asgardian healer.

After the first year on Asgard and she'd learned no way to return to her time and the gatekeeper even refused her request for transport to Earth without permission of the King, she had retreated to the library. If Loki wouldn't help, and she was too wary of Odin, she would find a way herself. Yet there was only obscure references to shadow pathways. Asgardian myth. And there was no one she knew who was as knowledgeable of myth and legend than Loki. It seemed that research and history weren't fields commonly taught. Of all the people she could approach, no one knew what she was on about. She might has well have been speaking another language.

As the years swept by, she accepted his offer to see other worlds. Perhaps she would find her answers or another way home from there. It wasn't the case.

"You're not the least bit curious as to how I discovered it was your birthday?"

Bowing her head, Chloe turned to him. He wore the non sinister, yet calculating Loki grin. He was gleeful about something and that never did bode well.

"I don't know. I've started talking in my sleep like my cousin?"

He frowned. "You have a cousin?"

She put her notebook down after she'd finished writing the ingredients she'd need to restock. "You told me you left me at a hospital in France because Odin refused to have me remain on Asgard, yet you never did say how or where you found me."

Loki put his fingers to his lips. "It is not a memory I particularly enjoy. My brother and his merry misfits were enjoying a boar hunt on Cygnus X-1. I was waiting for them to tire themselves battling remaining wild creatures and androids from previous games while searching for the trail of the boar when a near blinding flash of light burst across the twilight sky. At first we thought that Heimdall had opened the Bifrost early. Or that perhaps the All Father saw fit to join the hunt. On our way to investigate the disturbance, I came upon you. Sif inspected you and deemed you to have suffered a fatal wound. But there was an aura I sensed in you. I would know it later as the remnants of Celestial power. Because of my affinity with magic, I would not be so easily swayed by your death-like appearance. The others mocked me when I wished to bring you home. Likened it to compassion for a stray, a dead stray," he said with desparaging tones, mimicking Thor's deep tenor. "How I wish I could have seen their faces when father proved me right. But no sooner had the healers sealed your wounds and he discovered your gifts, he had you banished. More than one Celestial power should never be kept in such close proximity was his argument. He said that ancient power was drawn to the like yet they can not be joined or they will be destroyed. Only the gauntlet can safely house them together, and yet such power would destroy worlds and must remain hidden. Secret. He charged me with returning you to Midgard which is where he believed you to belong."

"So why didn't you leave me there?" Chloe asked. She didn't hate him, she'd had a long time to watch Loki, and their interactions lead her to believe that he really did think he was doing what was right for Asgard and that he believed he would be a better and fairer ruler than both Thor and his Father before him. He certainly walked among the people, learning all the various cultures and interacting with them. Sure he was tyrannical but only with those he saw would openly challenge what he believed was rightfully his to claim. On the whole he saw himself as a just and benevolent leader.

His curiosity and continued visitation and meddling in her life was dulling her memory of his past/future crimes. 

It only took fingering the scar that ran the length of her stomach from her sternum to her navel and she was reminded of his future actions. And the depth of his callous nature. It was his betrayal after all that had Thanos collecting the Celestial power of the Time Stone from her body.

"Heimdall had the most interesting news to share with me, Loki told her with a twisted smile. "When I asked him if you were well, he asked me which Chloe I desired him to look upon. It was a most peculiar discovery for him, he had never before seen two individuals that shared the same exact unique imprint. The child is you. A Midgardian infant and her parents call her Chloe Ann Sullivan."

She froze. She had never told him her full name. And she hadn't heard that name in many years. Her hand shook and she had to cling to the table top.

"Oops," he said with a sneer. "I forgot to mention, I'm about a month late for proper celebrations. You see, Odin now understands as do I, how you came to have the Celestial power of an Infinity Stone within you. 7th of October 1989, a quaint little town is devastated by the remains of the doomed planet Krypton. You may not know this but the Kryptonian race predates even Asgard.

"Long ago it was agreed that they would remain the Keepers of the Time Stone. Their Elders hid it deep underground near the planet's core and for centuries it aided their race to advance far beyond any other in the galaxy. They became a race of scientists, adventurers, renown people of industry and ingenuity. Until they mined their planet to extinction. The planet destroyed, some scholars believed the Stone lost to the stars, but unknown to all but a vigilant Gatekeeper it had attached itself to a small ship, bound for Earth. The ship took damage entering Earth's atmosphere and became separated from the Stone. In a nearby town, a mother travelling in a car with her young daughter were struck by a large meteor, it flipped several times before coming to rest in a crater. The Stone was in that crater. And it attached itself to the nearest living host. 

"You see this Stone has no power to effect Time without a Host. It's a symbiotic relationship. Krypton's red sun fuelled a unique energy source that fed into the planet's core. A living vein of blue crystals that grew and preserved the planet and its inhabitants connected with the Stone. The planet became its host. The Kryptonians mined those crystals, destabilising the planet. They destroyed themselves with their lack of understanding. These supposed great minds, inventors and pioneers of the Galaxy. Shrouding the Stone in secrecy, they forgot about its power."

Chloe dared not move or even speak as he paced the length of her small treatment room, his temper simmering at the surface, only a thin veneer of control keeping him from exploding in a verbal tirade of volatile anger.

"I have waited years for you to forget your Soldier and your beloved Midgard. If you could see him now," he smiled cruelly. "Would you love a man whom is no more than a savage beast? The atrocities he has committed, the innocent blood he has spilled. Eir, protector and healer, what a charming pair you would make. Perhaps I should steal the child away, save her from whatever horrific fate led you to be left for dead where I found you."

Chloe barely concealed her panic. She dreaded the woman she would turn out to be if Loki raised her. And all those heroes she protected, the friends she had made... Steve. She would never meet Steve. "And how do you plan to conceal the power of the Stone from Odin and Heimdall?"

His face turned stormy and he swept everything clear off her workbench in his anger. "Do not mock me. What must I do to be worth of such loyalty? What has he done to keep your heart?"

Chloe lifted her chin and didn't flinch when he invaded her personal space and peered into her eyes. His breathing bursting over the skin of her throat with every harsh exhale he made. "It's not what he has done at the manipulations of HYDRA, where they took away his mind and his freedom. It is what he will choose to do when he is free," she said without any trace of doubt.

Loki touched her cheek with a gentle fingers and buried his fingers in the golden hair at the nape of her neck. His skin was cool and she shivered. He leaned in closer and touched his nose to her skin, sucking in a breath, his lips just brushing her throat. It wasn't the first time he'd put his hands on her, but it was the first time he'd done so without any sign of stopping.

"I could kill him."

Chloe forced herself to ooze calm, on the inside she was terrified one misstep now would mean Bucky's life. "He would see it as a mercy."

Loki whirled away from her, his long robes slapping against her legs as he did so. "On one hand you desire nothing more than to return to his side and on the other you project abject indifference to the threat of his death."

"Death comes for us all. And you would release him from the chains of HYDRA."

Loki grasped her chin and searched her face. "Your eyes speak what your words do not betray." His lips twitched subtly. "What if I freed him? Would you look upon me differently?"

"I don't wear chains but am I free, Loki?" She realized very quickly that she shouldn't have prodded him with feelings of guilt. She should have let him draw his own conclusions, feel his own remorse.

He caught her arms and his green eyes pierced her soul. He smiled bitterly. "We are more alike than I first thought. I play with illusions, mind tricks. You play with emotions, trick heart."

Chloe shivered, not from his grasp, but from his words. She would never abuse her power. Never to hurt anyone. But a small voice prompted her with memories of what she was capable of. She rarely controlled her negative emotions around Loki. She wanted him to feel her loneliness, her heartbreak, her frustrations and just now she had forced guilt on him. 

When she looked up, she shook uncontrollably. It was the first time he'd ever worn someone else's face while in her presence. She knew he was capable of realistic illusions, of even duplicating himself, creating life-like decoys. But he'd never pretended to be anyone but himself around her. With a horrible sinking feeling she worried that this was only the beginning and she'd pushed him to this when she had opened his eyes to the dark side of her power.

Bucky, or Loki wearing Bucky's image in full Winter Soldier garb complete with black war paint watched her with predatory eyes.

"Miss me, darling?"

She hugged herself and closed her eyes, focusing on shutting down all emotion. Throwing it all behind the wall. When she looked up at him, she was numb. "Stop," she said, "don't pretend to be what you're not."

"Touché," he said but he didn't let the illusion fade. "We will live far longer than those mortals. And don't underestimate how patient I can be. I have followed my oaf of a brother for years, cleaning up his messes, saving him from folly, just waiting for the day my father can no longer deny his arrogance and unworthiness to lead. And when I am King, I wish you to be my Queen."

"Don't chase what will never be yours, Loki. You are the intelligent and thoughtful Prince, loved by the people in Asgard and throughout the realms. Don't let your lust for power, destroy all the good you have done."

"You speak as though you know my future. How is it that you came to be on Cygnus? What event was it that lead to your being abandoned in such a brutal manner?"

Chloe knew there was another reason why she told herself never to start talking with Loki. He never missed anything.

"I thought it odd that your manner of dress didn't fit any of the cultures on Midgard. It is how you knew exactly where to look for your soldier, isn't it? In all the time I've known you, you've barely aged a day. Chloe Sullivan is just over a three-years-of-age. Just how much of the future have you seen?"

"Enough to know that you will become a man I despise."

He saw the truth of her words in her eyes and he left her abruptly. He didn't return for weeks. But he never did stay away indefinitely. When he returned weeks later, he brought with him books and healing herbs to replace the ones he had broken and spoiled. There was an apology in his face and a contrite manner about him and after years of reading his moods, Chloe caved and against her better judgement, she let him stay.


	3. The Legacy Deception

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set during the events of Thor (2011)

He sought her out whenever he felt in a ranting mood. Chloe always listened. And when she thought it wouldn't do any harm, she shared her opinion. For many years, his relationship with Thor and the other warriors seemed to improve until that fateful year, Odin was to name his successor. Loki was in a rage when he visited her following Thor's failed coronation and subsequent exile.

She hadn't been there, but away in a remote village helping a young mother through a difficult birth and recovery. The passage of time was so different. She knew the days that passed, the festivals the people kept, but she didn't know how many years had passed on Earth or even what was happening on Asgard.

He was in her small cottage when she returned to the village she had chosen to live in.

He stood at the hearth staring at the dancing flames that sometimes formed dragon heads and released plumes of smoke before disappearing again. She figured he had something to do with the fire's odd behavior.

Her belongings were strewn around. Loki didn't have much respect for personal boundaries, but considering he always went where he wanted and did as he pleased, she had low expectations for his behavior.

"Do you think he will make a great King?"

Chloe shook her head. "Thor is boastful and careless. He is too high on his own self importance to make a good leader."

"You can see that. My father can see that yet he will refuse me. And you know why, don't you? Why did you not tell me I was Laufey's unwanted son?"

"Is that who you are? I thought you were Loki, beloved son of Frigga, and a prince of Asgard." 

She had met Frigga a handful of times. Once she had even dared to ask the Queen if she would grant her safe passage to Midgard. The woman had taken her hands and given her a pleading expression. She had said she couldn't. Her first loyalty was to her family. And she believed that Chloe was important to Loki. A good counsel and companion for him. He had so few true friends. Chloe wanted to scream that some days she'd rather strangle him in his sleep but kept silent. Frigga was probably the only reason Loki was half decent. And if her love for him, kept the moody Asgardian in check, then Chloe didn't want to alienate the Queen.

Loki glared at her, his fists turning blue. "Do not mock me, woman."

"Loki, you're in my house, you've broken my things - again. Stop acting like a child denied a trinket that isn't his to claim," she said tiredly, laying her bags on the hook by the door.

As she had turned back to continue her preparations for the evening, Loki pressed her against the wall and clamped her wrists above her head. He was so much stronger than her that he could easily snap her bones if he wanted to. Already his grip was bruising. 

"The lover you address in your journal. The letters you write. Who is Steve? I thought your lost love was the broken soldier. How quickly you are turned and how fickle a woman's affections are."

"I never said James was my lover. He is my friend. He will always be my friend and I care for my friends."

Loki caressed her cheek with his. He bit down on on the tender skin at the juncture between her throat and her shoulder that was exposed by her open neck tunic, and his sharp teeth sunk in enough to hurt. She hissed and did her best to remain still lest he take it as any sign of encouragement. 

"You taste like forbidden fruit."

"Please let me go," she begged him. There was only one man she longed for. Only one man who had claim of her heart. She wanted no one else and she knew a part of her soul would wither inside if any other man ever tried to take her.

Loki released her swiftly at the tortured plea and strode away. "You care for them. Those mortal friends of yours. Why can you not care for me?" he raged at her bitterly.

Chloe hugged herself and slid to the floor, trying to make herself as small as possible. "I do care for the man who saved my life."

"Am I not he?"

"With every visit I see less of the Loki who wanted to gift the people with a healer and more of a man who would destroy worlds to gain a crown."

"Show me how to be that man?" he said sombrely, his head bowed low against the stone mantle of her fireplace. "Since the day I saw you, your will to survive, your determination to save your soldier, your strength to endure against the unspeakable things they did and would have done, had I not taken you from that place. I have long wanted you by my side and in my bed. I want you as my wife."

Even if her heart were free to love another, she was afraid that being with a man like Loki would destroy her. For when she loved, she loved with everything she had, and Loki was a man that struggled with many demons. He had a volatile temper and his moods could be extremely dark. Yes she could dampen, even shift his emotions but ever since he called her on it, she'd been very conscious to keep her emotions to herself.

"Can you not love me?"

"I can not give you what wish of me," she said, her voice breaking. "But that does not mean I don't care for you, Loki."

His face blackened and his eyes flashed dangerously as he met her gaze. "If I can not have you, no man ever will."

She feared that he meant every word. She didn't know the exact details of what followed Thor's failed coronation, but she knew the royal family on Asgard would be shaken to its foundations. She also know that Loki would attempt to kill Thor using the Destroyer in New Mexico.

Afterward the Nine Realms would be cut off from each other as Thor was forced to break the Rainbow Bridge to save Jotunheim. 

In the coming months, there would be a great need for healers.

And soon, if not already, her younger self was to meet Steve Rogers. The man who would mend her heart, and claim it all in one unexpected sweep.

Not for the first time did she wish she had Steve's talent for art, so that she could have something of him to carry with her. She had been forced to trade her rings for supplies, in her quest to save James, having nothing of value but her precious platinum jewellery that engineers had need of to create weapons and batteries for the war effort. 

There were many moments she wished she had Steve or even Clark's infallible photographic memory. Something to preserve his smile and his face which already seemed so distant and clouded in her mind. The journal which Loki had so rudely invaded but at least he hadn't burned in a fit of temper, though it had been perilously close to the edge of the mantle, ready to topple to the hearth at any moment, was where she kept her most treasured memories alive. She rescued it and held it tightly to her chest. These daily entries she made, some just a line or two, we're all she had to remind herself of her life before. Of Steve and their friends that felt more dream than memory with each passing year.

Her emotions and stress levels running high it was no surprise that she had a very vivid dream of Steve. That night she fell asleep and dreamed of him, unwittingly sobbing in her unconscious state, she caused the shadow watching her to feel her pain. 

Loki hated her pain. He hated feeling her longing for this lost love. The grief and loneliness she felt when she thought she was alone and she stopped inhibiting her power. Perhaps when he was King he could take her pain. Odin's staff was incredibly powerful. Perhaps he could even erase every trace of her past and future. Gift her with a true blank slate. After all, how could she be sure of her place in the world if she was lost and out of time?

It would be the last time he would see her for many months, falling through the abyss of endless space only to be rescued and given an impossible task by Thanos, in exchange for his life.


	4. The World For A Crown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> References events in Avengers (2012) and Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Finding himself back on Midgard, his compassionate thought quickly turned to bitter anger when he realized the secret she had been keeping from him for two thirds of a century, longer than most mortals ever lived. Her lover. The keeper of her heart. The one she had been waiting to return to all these years was none other than Thor's new costumed, righteous, virtuous, War Hero and the celebrated American: Captain Steven Rogers. The other frozen Soldier. Oh he had to applaud her artful misdirection. If he hadn't found her journal and confronted her, he might have continued to believe her heart was tied to the fallen hero and blood stained Winter Soldier. 

Loki watched with building fury as they had bantered in the battle worn street below, before Thor shackled him and cut his ability to watch and shadow her younger self.

Later in his cell far below Asgard's Citadel, cut off from everyone, he swore once he was free, he would find her and he would make good on his promise. 

Thanos wanted the Stones and he knew exactly where all but two resided. He swore that she would be his and his alone. He knew now what had driven him to give her to Thanos in such a way. If her lover could not protect her than he was unfit and unworthy to claim her heart.

His Chloe was safe on Vanaheim. And he now knew how she came to be on Cygnus in his past. The annual games would soon be upon them. It was time for the present and the past to align.

She would be his, and she would forget all about her beloved Captain.

::: ::: :::

Marauders tore through Vanaheim, obliterating homes with their Rock Like champions, leaving nothing but wreckage and bodies in their wake. Thor lead a party of warriors from Asgard and Chloe, who had swapped her gauzes and walking staff for a bow and arrow, took out as many of the invaders as she could while urging villagers to the shelter of the mountain caves.

It had been a long time since she had handled weapons but her body remembered what her mind was uncertain over and she let instinct take the lead. She didn't miss. When she ran out of arrows, she used the fallen enemies swords and spears and was never more thankful that she had never fully embraced wearing a dress. Instead sticking to a tunic and leather pants in the winter, linen pants in the warmer months, which were much less confining or a trip hazard while fighting for your life.

Seeing the enemies now fleeing or already fallen in battle, she turned her attention to the wounded. One of the village elders who knew her by reputation offered his large tent to be used as a place for the Vadir to seek treatment for their injuries. 

Hogun, one of The Great Warriors Three came to inspect the wounded and speak with the elder, who Chloe learned was his younger brother.

"My brother tells me you are a healer. Yet I saw you fight in the fields. You are a warrior and your face is familiar to me. Are you of Asgard? It is said you have lived among the people for many years. Were you banished?"

Chloe finished bathing a large gash with cleansing herbs and then prepared a needle and thread to stitch it closed. "I was banished of a kind. Loki has kept me here. I am from Midgard. He brought me to Asgard many years ago."

"Can you not return? If you have committed no crime against Asgard, Thor would see you returned to your people. The service you have done for mine in my absence is a debt I must honor."

"Hogun, I fear that Odin, your King has always known where I am. Whatever his reasons, he and the Queen have seen fit that I remain on Vanaheim."

He looked crestfallen that he could not repay her care and aid. "I will speak to him."

Chloe bowed her head. "If you feel you must. I know my place in the world and I have hope that someday I will see my family again."

The tears that glistened in her eyes caused an ache in his chest. Never had he felt so moved. Not by Thor's battle cries, not by his people's struggles. The hope and faith that shone in her eyes and the conviction of her voice gave charge to action. 

"She is Eir. A most gifted healer," his brother said in hushed tones. "She can soothe any pain, heal most any affliction and in the face of death, she eases the loss with a blanket of comfort without comprehension. She is a treasure. One that we are most fortunate the Marauders did not recognize."

His brother spoke of her like the goddess of old. Perhaps she was. Why couldn't a healer also be a warrior? Sif was also a Lady of the court. Frigga was Queen but also the left hand of Odin.

As he left the tent to help douse the remaining fires and check on the other families in the village, he swore he would not rest until he had repaid her gifts to his people.

::: ::: :::

It was quiet, too quiet. Chloe tucked her writing tool between the pages of her journal and lifted the lantern. 

"Who's there?"

He appeared through the wall in all his golden horned grandeur, and in his hand he held the Sceptre of the King of Asgard. 

Chloe startled and dropped the lantern. The glass broke and spilled oil over the rug, the flame of the wick quickly igniting all the spilt fuel.

"Will you not bow before your King?" Loki demanded, ignoring the flames that raced from the floor to the curtains and quickly catching the bed frame alight. 

Chloe stared at him, wondering if this was her end. If she had to choose between dying and becoming a mindless slave to Loki's schemes and desires, she knew the answer. She backed away from him, cornering herself against the wall, and was soon boxed in by the flames that curled through the wool bed covers.

"Foolish, woman."

He charged the Sceptre at her and the next thing she knew, she was falling through a rainbow of color.

She lay panting on the ground, burns on her bare feet and embers threatening to set her nightgown alight. She used her bare hands to pat out the smouldering fabric. With Loki due to make an appearance at any moment. She was not going to be giving him anything to ogle. 

True to form, he swept into the room, regal, arrogant and frightening. There was no trace of the thoughtful, considerate man left.

"If you will not accept me freely, I will be forced to act. I would not take who you are, I will merely remove what causes you the greatest pain. After all, wasn't it your constant mantra that we should embrace our circumstances and forget what we can never attain?" he said coldly.

Chloe got up and raised herself to her full, yet unremarkable height. He towered over her. Even more so with that monstrosity on his head. "You have power, but those that attain power by force spend all of their days fighting to keep it. You will never be a great king, Loki. And if you do this, if you take my memories, it will make no difference. You can't change who you are. And I see the man you have become, and I loathe the sight of you," she said, every fibre of her being lashing out her disappointment, anger and betrayal. She told herself she knew who he became, a man who would betray his own brother, and a woman he professed to love leaving her to the hands of a merciless Mad Titan. He was a monster and yet she had foolishly come to care for him. His betrayal now was so much worse than she thought possible. This act shredded what care she had for him, the betrayal wounding her more deeply than what the Loki of her future would do to her younger self. 

"Preserve that which makes her strong, powerful and just. Purge all that pains and torments her soul."

The power of the King's staff touched her head and she screamed as it felt a white hot blade cut into her skull. Under the sudden onslaught of pain she couldn't stop the instinctual backlash that burst out of her.

Loki got up off the floor. The energy that she had hit him with had knocked them both off their feet. He took off his helmet and lay it on the bed. In the privacy of his bed chamber that was magically cloaked from all watchful eyes, he had quickly dropped the Odin-guise. Chloe was the only one whom he had ever revealed himself plainly too without any illusions. He had only pretended with her once, and that once was enough. The horror and disappointment she had let him see in response had feel had made him sick inside. He swore never to be anyone else but himself before her again.

She might never believe it but he did not enjoy her pain. It's why he did this. He wanted to protect her, end her suffering. She could love him. He already knew she cared. If she had no feelings for him, her reaction would be indifference, yet she was always fierce in the face of his missteps and called him on his ego or childishness. He needed her and he would have her.

But she wouldn't wake. Whatever he'd done, her powers and the a Sceptre had fought against each other and it didn't matter which had won out in the end for she was in a death-like sleep and would not wake.

He had the healers move the Odin-sleep vessel to a room deeper in the lower levels of the palace. He posted a guard outside and lay Chloe within the protective barrier. The golden rays would preserve her while her body healed whatever damaged the clashing energy had caused. In the meantime, he had a war to prepare for. Thanos would not have forgotten their deal. He wanted the Stones and as King of Asgard, he now knew the location of every single one.

Seeing the younger Chloe would be a tenous experience. He wondered if she would be as fierce as her older self. A heaviness settled in his stomach as he thought of what Thanos would do to attain the Stones. Perhaps if he arranged something through the Gamemaster, Thanos would have to act in a more controlled and respectable manner. Earth's champions and Chloe herself would not surrender the Mind or the Time Stones willingly. Yet he knew Chloe would survive, and he would find her in his past. 

And once the Battle of Champions was done, Asgard and his rule preserved, he could return to his Chloe, and search for all manner of healing magic and reference to make her well again.

::: ::: :::


	5. Freed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Present day: The truth of what happened to Chloe is revealed by an unexpected survivor of the games.
> 
>  
> 
> Inspired by the song;  
> Love Is Not A Fight by Warren Barfield

In the Arena, the Gamemaster declared the Victors. Having abandoned the Arena, Thanos had forfiet his position. The Elder sincerely doubted the Titan cared. He wasn't naive enough to congratulate the remaining champions however. He was prepared to leave them their winnings on a hover platform and leave on his ship.

An unexpected survivor foiled his plans of making a smooth exit. He made an undignified squeak of surprise when Vision materialised out of the floor.

"You're...Thanos destroyed you."

"He damaged my body, and took the Mind Stone but all the knowledge I had acquired to that point remained in tact. I was able to repair the damage to this form. I no longer have the ability to connect with minds but I have a great many useful skills as a result of the knowledge I gained while in possession of the Stone. Atom manipulation, solar energy conversion and tissue regeneration, anti-matter, to name a few. Loki took a living supercomputer from the Kryptonian's possession. Where is it?"

The Gamemaster looked at the glowing alien hand stretching out for him and panicked when he realized Vision had caused the platform to descend to the sand of the arena. "I don't have it. Loki didn't give me anything."

"Did you know what Thanos was after?" Thor bellowed at him. "As an Elder of the Galaxy you should know the dangers of combining the stones within the Gauntlet."

"I didn't know of his plans but it doesn't matter. He hasn't acquired them all and The Collector will never allow them to fall into the hands of someone like Thanos."

"Do you really think what The Collector intends will matter when Thanos has the power to manipulate Time?" Thor asked.

Hulk grew impatient with everyone talking and grabbed the cape wearing, pompous looking man and sucker punched him right out of the arena.

"Well that's one way of dealing with arrogant stupidity," Thor mused.

Steve dropped his helmet in the sand and didn't even have the presence of mind to care to search for where his shield had fallen. "Chloe's gone. How is it possible that she's just vanished? She didn't fade like Wanda. I've seen those effects before. When the Red Skull held the Cube, there was a rift and I saw an image of the Galaxy before he disappeared. I think it means he wasn't destroyed like I first thought but perhaps transported somewhere. You said that the Tesseract was actually the housing for an Infinity Stone, am I right?" he asked Thor.

"Yes, the Tesseract has the power to bend space. We used it to repair the Rainbow Bridge on Asgard when I had to break it to stop Loki from destroying the Juten."

"And Vision was protecting the Mind Stone?" Clark added.

"So what did Thanos want with Chloe?"

Thor gave him a pained look. "I did not know until I saw what he had done, but the glow and the placement within the gauntlet implied that she had the power of the Time Stone within her."

Steve fell quiet. Clark's mouth dropped open and he shook his head, "That's not possible. I mean, she's never displayed the ability to manipulate time."

"Reversing events so that it would appear they never happened, altering memories so that even feelings and injuries were undone?" Vision asked in a very calm manner.

Bucky felt blood rushing in his ears, his heartbeat thundering behind his ribs. "So she is lost in time? They are not false memories, she was there?" he said his voice barely a whisper, pain leaching all warmth and strength from his body. She had been a captive with him and yet he had no idea what had become of her after Zola finished transforming him into the Winter Soldier. 

"How do we find her, bring her back?" Steve stared a look with Bucky and felt true helplessness in the face of his friend's guilt and fear.

"If she even survived her wounds?" Thor speculated. "She was gravely injured."

Steve curled his hands into fists. "I thought no mortal could hold the power of one of those stones. If that's true and Chloe has been a vessel for one this long then that means she's a lot stronger than you know. Bucky remembers her from his past. She's alive and we'll find her. And I'm willing to bet your brother knows something."

"Loki has fooled all of Asgard posing as my father. We will need an ally to get us past the gatekeeper."

"Or we could just use a ship," Vision said nodding to the large craft above them.

Hulk grunted in approval with a toothy grimace that Clark concluded might have actually been a smile. He crouched and then leapt upward to the open space that must be a hanger deck. Clark was beginning to warm to the green giant. He had a very uncomplicated and straight shooting personality.

Thor requested they visit Vanaheim first to recruit Hogun. His friend had stayed with his people and had not been caught up in any of the trouble that the Aether and the Dark Elves had caused on Asgard after they'd repaired the Bifrost and restored order to the Nine Realms. 

"Old friend," he said in greeting as the aircraft ramp lowered to reveal a small receiving party waiting for them.

Hogun had his companions stay their weapons when he recognised his sworn brother in arms. "Thor," Hogun said warmly. "What brings you?"

"A coup on Asgard. Loki has taken the throne and fooled everyone into believing he is King. He had me banished to the Gamemaster's hordes and I have been a prisoner until now. What of Heimdall? Have you visited Asgard in recent times?"

Hogun shook his head. "My people suffered much at the hands of the Marauders. It has taken us time to rebuild. This past year we suffered another great loss. The healer, Eir, she was slain in the night and her home burned to ruins. She was much loved. The villagers battled the blaze for many hours but by morning, there was very little to salvage. She was a gift to our people and to many other worlds I am told."

Steve had heard part of their exchange and a single word triggered something in his mind. "What did you call her?" he asked.

Hogun took in the Captain's bloodied clothing and frowned in concern over his appearance but also felt confusion over his question. Thor's strangely attired comrade had an anxious and pained expression on his face, as though the answer he would supply might both give him hope but possibly devastate him at the same time. "We called her Eir, the Healer. Come, you all must be weary and we can offer you food and clothing, and we can talk further of Asgard," he said to Thor.

Steve and the rest of their group followed Thor and Hogun to the village in the distance. All the while his thoughts troubled by the notion that Chloe could be Eir. Loki had called her that while they had been imprisoned on Cygnus. Was it possible that he'd found her in the past and left her on Vanaheim to keep her from them?

Steve bathed and accepted new garments offered by their host. Hogun then took him to the ruins of house he had asked to see.

"We found no body," Hogun said. "But she explained once that Loki kept her prisoner. Perhaps he took her to Asgard and set the dwelling to flame to prevent anyone for discovering his intentions."

Steve and the others walked through the blackened ruins. Very little of the original structure remained in tact but some of the stone walls and the fireplace. 

"I found something," Clark said, he picked up a small leather bound book. It has been protected from the elements while it had been buried beneath roofing slate that had caved when the build structure had collapsed. It's pages were scorched and burned but parts of it looked intact. He had spotted it while using his X-Ray vision while scouring for clues. When he gingerly opened the cord fastening, the binding split and pages spilled out.

Steve bent to pick up a small folded parchment that had fluttered loose and read a familiar neat script;

The days are a dizzying scope of duty and need  
The nights are quiet and filled with an seemingly endless aching longing  
I dream of you, pray and yearn for you  
You are always beyond reach  
Your smile is gentle in warmth and comfort  
I long to feel the strength of your embrace  
My mind can not cling to the image of you  
As time stretches on your face is no longer clear  
What the mind can forget the heart will never release  
My heart is anchored to yours and feels no barrier of time or space  
What dreams can not supply the heart will endure  
The words of your soul.  
The acts of your love and courage, these truths will never fade.  
Never will another name pass these lips with promises of eternity and desire  
I burn for you  
I wait for you  
My dearest love  
I am yours  
Your Nightingale

The paper crumpled in his hands, and he felt a wave of riotous emotions overtake him. As a hot tear fracked down his face, he felt Bucky's hand on his shoulder. 

"We will find her."

::: ::: :::

Freed and determined, Thor returned to Asgard and brought his allies with him. It was with anger and sorrow that Asgard's rightful heir returned home. 

Sif was startled by the manner of his return. She believed him to still be on Midgard. Odin had relieved Heimdall of his post when he had failed once too many to properly perform his duty as Gatekeeper. She had not seen her adoptive brother for more than two cycles. Seeing Thor, she wondered not for the first time what had become of Heimdall after he lost his prestigious position.

The ship breaching Asgard's orbit had the army scrambling for their defenses. Cannons opened fire. Thor, Superman, Vision and the Hulk exited the hanger deck and left to various points of the city. Thor flew straight for the Citadel. His target was Loki. He wouldn't give him brother an opportunity to escape. Clark followed Vision when he indicated that he had picked up a trace of the radiation that he had identified as unique to the Infinity Stones. It was too small an amount to be Thanos, but perhaps it could belong to someone who had once possessed a stone.

Steve and Bucky, who were fortunately joined by Hogun, convinced Fandral and Volstagg they were no enemies of the realm and that they were on Asgard at Thor's request.

Sif, who had been made Captain of Asgard's armies in Thor's absence, ordered all of the battlements to cease their attack on the armored ship and to stand down when she spotted Thor's familiar silhouette.

Vision found the room where Chloe resided without trouble and was comforted to learn that she had survived her wounds from Nebula and Thanos. "Her cells appear to regenerate in a similar manner to yours, Kal-El. I am unsure of how much time has passed for her, she will be able to tell us herself what occurred after her disappearance. Speak to her, perhaps your presence will break the chrysalis surrounding her conscious mind."

He then left the room knowing that there were two powerful individuals imprisoned deep in the caves below Asgard that needed to be freed.

Chloe slept in a cocoon of tranquil white mist. She likened it to being on the edge of wakefulness yet wanting to linger away from the day a little longer, enjoying the warmth and safety of peaceful rest.

Occasionally sounds and voices disturbed the quiet. She knew Loki was near even before he spoke. His moods were always heavy and his impatience rubbed her the wrong way. She retreated deeper behind the protective layers of her shield when he came close. She didn't want to leave. He'd tried to hurt her, change her. She worried if she woke up that maybe he would succeed. Here she was safe. She was still herself, and she clung to her memories, relived each one. They were all she had left of her past, her love and her friends.

A sudden unexpected surge of rapturous energy took her by surprise. Joy, overwhelming in its intensity surrounded her in an all encompassing, almost stifling wave. She couldn't help the bubble of laughter and happy tears that spilled down her cheek while in the sanctuary of her mind. She knew this kind of radiance. His capacity to muster enthusiasm and positivity was contagious. When he smiled, she had always gotten this nervous flutter in her chest as a girl. He was the embodiment of summer in her mind. With him came a sense of belonging and pride. She would know his aura anywhere. Help had come.

With nervousness, she slowly started to pick away at the thick protective layers shielding her mind. It took effort and she felt tired by the time her eyes responded to her command to open but she blinked up at the face of one madly grinning and oddly dressed Clark Kent.

The moment green eyes met blue, he opened his arms to her and she reached for his hand. He pulled her out of the golden chamber and she quickly found herself wrapped in a tight embrace. It was a good thing his strong arms kept her anchored against his chest, she could barely feel her toes and the sudden onset of pins and needles was making her a bit hesitant to even attempt standing on her own.

"What on earth are you wearing?" she asked with a smile in her voice. He looked like he'd stepped off the set of a Star Wars movie. Or more fittingly, that he'd been visiting her adopted people. But he was much larger than any Vadir male. And the pants were stretched tight when they normally hung loose with the hems up around his shins. The tunic arms were too short and sat extremely tight across his shoulders.

Clark laughed and pulled back to look at her, keeping his hands on her waist, not yet ready to let her go. "Me, look at you. It's a good look though," he teased fondly. "A vision in white gold. A real Asgardian princess." At her shiver he regretted his thoughtless words. Who knew how long Loki had been keeping her in a gilded cage. "I'll get Steve. Don't move." He dropped an affection kiss on her forehead and then whooshed away. 

Chloe felt her heart skip a beat and she wanted to say something but Clark was gone before she could speak. Her entire body trembled, a sudden weakness overtaking her. She put her hand back on the edge of the bed to keep herself steady. 

How long had she been asleep this time? All she'd wished for, so many years she'd hoped and dreamed of being reunited with him and now, she was finally free. Her eyes prickled with a familiar burning and she blinked quickly. She felt her hair swing as she ducked her head and nervously twisted one long lock between her fingers. Her body had changed. Without the power to manipulate time, she could no longer reverse and undo the wounds she absorbed or the ones she acquired herself. She wasn't the same woman Steve had fallen in love with and married. Not only did she look different, she wasn't a fighter anymore. She lived a quiet life, she didn't have friends, and perhaps she wouldn't know how to fit into her old life anymore.

What would he say to her? Would he understand if she couldn't go back to the lives they once had? Would he still love her, want her as she was now?

Steve had taken one look at Clark's giddy expression and knew that he had found Chloe. He took off running in the Kryptonian's direction, Bucky hot on his heels and both of them ignoring the calls of Thor's friends behind them.

They stopped at the entrance to a set of large ornate brass doors. There was a guard unconscious that lay on the floor to one side.

"He's not dead," Clark said quickly to Fandral and Hogun. Volsagg was heaving, having fallen behind unable to match the speed of the others and was still coming up the hall.

Steve pushed the doors open and dropped his shield when he saw her turn to face them. Her smile was bright but he saw her hands shaking at her sides. She was dressed in a gown that made her seem etheral, her hair which had never been so long in all the time they'd known each other hung almost to her waist.

He crossed the room quickly and swept her up into his arms, and pressed his face to her throat, breathing her in. She still smelled of honey, spring flowers and his Chloe.

Steve was also dressed in clothing that the men of Vanaheim wore and she suspected that Hogun had something to do with that. She caught the stoic warrior's eye and nodded her thanks to him, mouthing her gratitude. He bowed humbly to her in return.

She threaded her fingers into Steve's hair, soaking in his closeness and the feeling of his solidity in her arms. His familiarity made her heart burst with joy in her chest and tears spilled down her cheeks. "It's been so long," she sobbed softy.

Steve's heart skipped a beat over words once spoken to him before by another. He held her face between his hands and kissed her desperately, drowning in her taste and her softness. He moved his hand down and curled his arm around her waist drawing her petite frame against the hard length of his body. "I love you," he said after he broke away after hearing her hearing rapid shallow breathing. 

Chloe ran her hands across his chest and then stilled them over his heart. "Steve," she whispered. "I'm not the same," she choked out, dipping her face, struggling for composure and courage before meeting his eyes again. "I... When I heal someone I take the wound and I'm different. I don't know if I can go back." She despaired the thought of what he would think seeing all her scars and closed her eyes to shutter her anxieties, also to hide from the possibility of seeing pity or disappointment in his eyes.

Steve caught her hands in one of his and threaded his fingers between hers, anchoring her palms against his chest. He kept his touch gentle, his thumb stroking her jaw and lifting her chin hoping to coax her to those beautiful green eyes that he'd craved so badly in the weeks she'd been gone and then holding her whilst she bled into the sand. He had been terrified he'd never see them crinkle at the corners when she smiled, never to open and greet him again when he'd watched her fade from life as she bled out in his arms.

"Chloe, I don't know what you've been through. How long it must have been for you, but nothing changes my love for you. I'm here for you. For always. I promised forever, in sickness and in health. Do you still care for me?"

Unable to speak, her vision blurred with tears, she nodded and bit her bottom lip. She lifted her face to his and blinked back her tears. "Seems were destined for each other, quite a pair we make," she whispered her voice hoarse from trying to rein in her spiralling emotions. "I think I might be older than you now, Mr. Rogers."

"As beautiful as the day I met you," he said his voice deeper, throatier as touched his forehead against hers. "Whatever you need, whatever you want to do, I'll follow you, Angel. Always."


	6. Judgment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Don't read if you like Loki. Things don't end well for him.

Thor caught Loki before he could use Odin's staff to escape. Heimdall drew his sword that Sif had retrieved from the weapons room and levelled it at the Deceiver.

As the Elders gathered in the hall to see the commotion, they saw the real Odin ascend the throne for the first time in many months and look coldly upon the kneeling form of Loki at Thor's feet.

"Loki, Prince of Asgard, my son... Your actions can not be excused. There is no longer any plea for mercy from your mother, my Queen to save your from your fate. For your treachery and betrayal of your family and the good people of this realm, your sentence is death."

"Please," he said simply, pitifully. "I only ever did everything for the glory of Asgard."

"He lies," Sif said coldly. Now that she knew the truth, she could see all his manipulations plainly from all the missions he had had her carry out since Thor left for Earth. Chasing down Lorelei only for her to disappear from the dungeons soon after her return, retrieving the Aether from The Collector and the Stone from Xandar just to turn them over to their enemy.

"The shields were damaged by the Dark Elves, I could not take any of our treasures to replace the spent crystals so I found another way."

"By selling me and our allies like cattle?" Thor bellowed.

"You're Earth's mightiest warriors," Loki said. Even if he believed it, to everyone it sounded more mocking than praise.

Then quite unexpectedly he threw himself at the mercy of Steve, grovelling on his knees, his hands lifted in supplication. Or more specifically the elegant, regal woman, who stood close by his side.

"Surely you see the future of Asgard if left to their care. In an Age of Titans, darkness, war is coming and who will lead? An old man and a Prince too full of his own self importance to see the dangers that lay ahead. You have seen it. The end of Asgard. Ragnarok."

Chloe looked at him sadly, his desperation made her feel uneasy. She felt pity for him. For so long he truly believed that every act, every decision had been for the protection of Asgard. It was a shame that he still failed to see that if he'd been humble and accepted a most respected position of trusted advisor, his destiny would have been very different. "You forget that I have no more control over time, nor do I see visions of the future since the power was torn from me, Loki. You brought this end upon yourself."

Steve vibrated in anger, the chained pitiful looking, snake of a man had dared to speak to his wife after all he had done to her. He'd as good as had her murdered. And then when she's survived he'd kept her prisoner. "Touch her and I will kill you," he said his voice hard as steel.

Thor lifted his brother by his arm. "I will not listen while you weave your deceptions and lies. It is done."

"No!" Loki noticed Heimdall's sword in his brother's hand and then looked at the man who had always had his desired one's heart. "Eir is more mine than she was ever yours."

Thor roared in anger, shamed by the man he had once called brother. Those were the final words of Loki Laufeyson.

There was no room for celebration even at the return of Asgard's true king and favored son.

Clark prepared to return to Earth. Someone needed to make a report to S.H.I.E.L.D and begin the search for Wanda. Vision pledged to help him.

The mood in the golden city was a somber one. There was a lot of healing that the people required. Chloe elected to remain, sensing that Thor and his friends needed support in this time of grief and reflection. Steve would not leave her side, and that meant it went without saying that Bucky wouldn't be leaving either. Hulk also stayed, only because he didn't want to return to Earth, knowing he would be hunted there as well. He only wished to be left alone, and considering Thor had shared many tales of Hulk's victories, everyone gave him a wide berth. Chloe sensed that although it's what he preferred, it wasn't what the Hulk or Bruce really wanted.

Steve didn't care where they stayed. He had her back and he was never letting her out of his sight again.


End file.
